Method of making a work supporting structure



2,977,535 SEARQ 1105111 SQJBSTITUTE FOR MISSING XR March 17,1959 J-w.CONI-ON 2,877,538

METHOD o5 MAKING A woRx sUPPoffNG STRUCTURE riginal F1165 May 2o, I 1955v 72216/1555 35 /3 gf TfY ington Manufacturing Company, a corporation ofConnecticut Original application May 20, 1955, Serial No. 509,765.Divided and this application November 8, 1956, Serial No. 621,099 v Thisinvention relates to the use of some fluid, which may be air or someliquid, for movably supporting a plate or carriage which has upon itsome heavy structure. An illustration would be a turntable which wouldcarry a heavy fixture for various operations by a drilling or millingmachine where the work was so heavy that it would be difficult to movethe same. Another illustration would be the table of a milling machinewhich supported some heavy work piece which was desired to be moved in alongitudinal direction from one position to another.

Frequently the work is moved n some base by sliding it along the basewhich may have no anti-friction means and at times work is supportedupon a rotary table which is equipped with ball bearings or something ofthe sort for more easy movement of the table about a center.

I have found that if two ground horizontal surfaces are placed incontact, that if l can force a fluid between these surfaces, such forinstance as air, and have this distributed over a substantial surfacearea that the upper part is lifted against gravity, carrying whateverweight may be upon it, and the parts may be easily moved eitherrotatively or longitudinally by a small amount of applied pressure.Accordingly, I have provided an arrangement by which tubes are providedbeneath a substantial part of the surface of one of the horizontalsurface members and formed openings therefrom to the surface which is infaceto-face contact with another member so that by providing even asmall amount of pressure, uid will pass out of the multiplicity ofopenings and will press upon the two surfaces and distribute itselfthroughout the surfaces so as to provide a fluid between the surfaces,enabling one to be lifted slightly and also so antifrictioned that itmay be easily relatively moved from one position to another, and while Ifind air preferable, as it escapes and is unnoticed in the operation, Imay still use a liquid in cases where the liquid may be discharged atsuch locations as will not interfere with the operation of theinvention.

An object of this invention is to provide an easy way of movementbetween two parts, one of which may support a heavy structure and yetprovide a simple way by which the parts may be held by gravity andthrough friction against such movement.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simple way by which thetubes may be embedded in one of the members which is to supply the uidwhich I use, and I have found that by casting one of the members about atubular conduit, this may be easily accomplished.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of certainnovel features of construction as will be more fully described andparticularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is an elevation showing a pair of rotary members, one of whichis the base, and the other a carriage for the work;

" hired States Patent C) 2,877,538 Patented Mar. 17, 1959 Figure 2 is atop plan view of the tubes which are used in this invention;

Figure 3 is a sectional view on line 3 3 of Figure 1 and showing thetubular conduits as cast into the base member of the structure; v

Figure 4 is an enlarged sectional view on substantially line 4--4 ofFigure 3 and showing the small openings from the tubular conduitsextending to the upper face of the base member;

Figure 5 is a sectional view on line 5-5 of Figure 6 of the base only,illustrating a modified form of the invention showing a differentshaping of the base and conduit therein;

Figure 6 is an elevation of the structure of Figure 5.

With reference to Figure 1, I provide a base member 10 and a member 11which I refer to as a carriage member, as upon this member there may beplaced heavy structures which it may be desired to move rotatively topresent diierent sides thereof for operation thereon. One method offorming the base 10 is to provide tubular conduits which, as shown inplan view in Figure 2, consist of an outer circular tube 12, a secondconcentric tube 13, and a third concentric inner tube 14. These tubesare joined together by radial tubes 15 extending between the tubes 12and 13 and radial tubes 16 extending between the tubes 13 and 14. Theseradially extending tubes 15 and 16 may occur at any desired circularspacing and are here shown as existing at four different equally spacedlocations. Access to the network of conduits will be had through one setof radial tubes 15 and 16 as at 17.

This network 18 of tubing is then held in a mold and the material whichis to form the base plate 10 is cast about this network, as shown inFigure 1, and also as shown in Figures 3 and 4. This material will, forthe sake of illustration, be considered to be aluminum and ICC isdesignated as 19, and it holds the network of tubes 18 substantiallymidway between its top finished flat face 20 and its bottom face 21. Acentral hole 22 is provided through this base for the reception ofvashaft 23 which is provided with a head 24 in a suitable recess 25 in thelower surface of the base. This shaft 23 extends above the base a littleshort of the thickness of the carriage plate 11 which may be a castingor disk type formation of a diameter equal to that of the base with anopening 26 therein to receive the pin 23 and rotatably support thecarriage member 11 on the base member 10. The carriage member 11 willhave its lower face 27 at and finished smooth so that the weight of i'tplus any heavy structure which may be supported on its upper surface '28may rest by gravity by sliding along the pin 23 with the faces 20 and 27in rather close engagement due to the finished surfaces of these twoparts.

Small openings 30 are drilled or suitably formed from the face 20 to thetubular conduits 18 at a multiplicity of locations along the surface 20,and the inlet 17 is connected by some suitable coupling 31 to a fluidline 32 so that fluid may be injected into the tubular conduits and willextrude under the pressure supplied thereon through the openings 30between the faces 20 and 27. Even heavy objects and a small amount ofpressure such as might even be afforded by the human mouth will be foundto enable the carriage to be easily moved by rotation of the carriagemember 11 on the base 10. Where greater weights are provided, higherpressures may be utilized for this purpose.

In some cases instead of having the conduits circular, the conduits maybe serpentine in form as at 33 in Figure 5 with a rectangular base 35cast about the serpentine form conduits, in which case there will beopenings 38 drilled in from the top surface 37 of the base, whichopenings will appear in the tubular conduit which is not sectioned inFigure 5. In this case the carriage plate would be similarly rectangularin shape and would be resting upon the surface 37 and be free to bemoved in any direction along longitudinal lines as distinguished from arotary motion such as would occur in Figure 1.

This application is a division of my application, Serial No. 509,765tiled May 20, 1955.

' I claim:

1. The method of forming a plate for a uid bearing structure comprisingforming a framework of tubes to a shape generally coextensive with thesurface area of the desired plate, then casting a plate about saidframework to enclose said framework, and then forming a plurality oftluid escape holes in the plate extending from a face thereof through acomplementary wall of the tubes, said l5 holes being arranged to affordsubstantially uniform lift n to a member covering the holes.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 243,708Jones .A.- July 5., 1881 1,234,878 Corvin J'uly 3l, 1917 1,743,438Defibaugh Jan. 14, 1930 2,617,696 Honiss Nov. ll, 1952 2,645,534 BeckerJuly 14, 1953 2,683,636 Wilcox July 13, 1954

